Dorothy Smiljanich: Paynes Prairie holds the power to transform

Monday

Feb 24, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Paynes Prarie is a veritable wonderland teeming with wildlife including bison, alligators and horses -- and it needs your support.

By Dorothy SmiljanichSpecial to The Sun

For many years, Paynes Prairie was to me just a flat, green plain that I crossed coming and going from Gainesville. Whether I was on Interstate 75 or U.S. 441, whether I was headed north or south, it made no difference. The prairie view was always the same: boring, monotonous, flat and empty.A few palm trees here, a bush or two there, high weeds, a tree line far off in the distance, and perhaps a flock of birds circling overhead or a solitary bird sitting on a fence post. Hardly even worth noticing.But this changed one hot summer day, when my 13-year-old nephew Will and I visited La Chua Trail for the first time and decided to make the mile-long hike out to the observation tower. We were wearing only shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops. We had no water and no suntan lotion, but we were foolish enough to press on beneath a merciless sun.About halfway there, we came upon three horses grazing in the middle of the trail. We kept a good distance back and watched them for a while in amazement until — without any warning and entirely unprovoked — they came thundering down the trail directly at us. We had no room to step off the trail, so we turned sideways and backed up to the edge.I told Will not to move a muscle or make a sound as they passed — harmlessly, I hoped — by us. At the very last second, just before they reached us, the horses veered off the trail and galloped off into the prairie — tossing their heads, flicking their tails and kicking up their hooves.In that sudden, unscripted moment, in that unexpected and thrilling brush with unfettered wildness, even though we were hot and miserable and even a little frightened, we knew something magical had happened. The prairie was transformed and so was I.It was not an empty, flat, green expanse. It was a veritable wonderland teeming with life — with bison, with alligators, with fish, with snakes and, yes, of course, with wild horses. Those birds circling overhead were — of all amazing things — migrating sandhill cranes that had flown down thousands of miles from the frozen North to grace us with their grandeur and warm us with their haunting, trumpeting calls, and that bird sitting alone on the fence post was — just imagine! — an American bald eagle.And so I came to understand that the prairie — a 22,000-acre park and wildlife preserve — was so much more than I had suspected, so much more than I had realized, so much more than I had appreciated, and perhaps even more than I deserved.I joined the Friends of Paynes Prairie, now regularly volunteer at La Chua Trail and recently helped at the stargazing event, which opens up the wondrous night sky — through the generosity of the Alachua Astronomy Club's telescopes — to folks willing to trek into the prairie darkness beyond Gainesville's light pollution.This year, the Friends of Paynes Prairie are launching a major membership drive. And no wonder. Although the park attracts some 250,000 visitors annually, although thousands of people traverse the highways that intersect the prairie every day, although hundreds of people may visit the La Chua Trail on a warm Sunday, and although visitation generates an economic impact estimated at $10 million for the region, the Friends' memberships number only 300 or so. Only 300!The best benefit of membership — intangible and priceless — is knowing that you are a part of preserving the prairie. As you drive across it, coming and going from Gainesville, you no longer will see just a vast and empty plain, but rather you will see a thrilling wilderness swarming with horses and bison and alligators and clear night skies and incredible plants and birds — and you will know that you are a part of it. And that it is a part of you. And that your membership will help preserve it forever. Please join now and help make 2014 a banner membership year for the park and for all the animals and plants that call it home.Dorothy Smiljanich is a Gainesville resident and a board member of the Friends of Paynes Prairie. For more information, visit www.prairiefriends.org.

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